


Happy Birthday, Miss Hale

by DuckInterpreter



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Nogitsune
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-05
Updated: 2014-04-05
Packaged: 2018-01-18 06:16:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1418078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DuckInterpreter/pseuds/DuckInterpreter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Today is not a great day to visit Derek, not that that'll stop Stiles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy Birthday, Miss Hale

**Author's Note:**

  * For [betp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/betp/gifts).



Derek was leaning against a bench in his kitchen, his arms braced against it. He had finally crumbled, bought plates and cutlery, some pots and pans, even a blender. Stiles couldn’t help but find the image of his surrounded by such domestic items a little alien, although the look on his face was familiar enough. He was brooding.  
“Hey,” Stiles approached, put his hand on Derek’s arm, a friendly, familiar gesture.  
Derek jumped violently at the touch.  
“Whoa,” it took less than a second for Stiles to be several meters away, his empty hands held in front of him. “You okay, big guy?” Stiles’ voice was low, soothing. The kind of voice you’d use with a wounded animal that was backed against a wall with its claws out. But Derek’s claws weren’t out and he bristled, but settled.  
“Yeah, I-” he paused. “It’s nothing. What’s wrong? Why are you here?”  
Stiles swallowed, pushed down the hurt that Derek was acting like he had no right to be there. It was as though he was back to six months ago, before he and Derek spent long nights together researching, and then just hanging out. Like Stiles had never called Derek at 2am, having a panic attack and repeating over and over that it was all a dream. Like they didn’t go and see the new Captain America movie together last week and hold hands in the dark.  
“I wanted to see you. Tell me what’s bothering you, you didn’t even hear me come in so it’s definitely not nothing.”  
There’s a long pause. “Today is- it’s April 20th.”  
Stiles nods and waits.  
“It’s Laura’s birthday.”  
Stiles closes his eyes for a moment and then nods. He approaches Derek and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Okay,” he said softly. “Okay. I’m sorry, Der,”  
Derek swallows and shrugs. Stiles just stands there for almost a full minute, his mind moving fast.  
“Okay. I have to go out, but I’ll be back in about a half an hour. Don’t go anywhere.”  
“I wasn’t- what?” Derek says, startled. But Stiles is already pushing his was out of the door and sliding it closed behind him.  
\---  
To Stiles’ relief, Derek isn’t still standing at the counter when he comes back- 34 minutes later. He’s got two big bags full of groceries and other things Derek can’t really see.  
“What’s all this?” Derek asks, guardedly.  
“This is the ingredients for red velvet cake and the cheapest slab of lasagne I could find as well as like seven of the brat pack movies. Luckily Scott loves them so I didn’t have to go out and hunt them down.”  
“Red Velvet was Laura’s favourite.” Derek said slowly. Stiles had started to pull out the groceries and he paused and nodded.  
“And cheap lasagne, and the movies.” Derek went on, frowning.  
“After my Mom died, for a few years my Dad I ignored her birthday, he’d get drunk, I’d get into trouble. And then one year I got sick of it. She always had super chocolaty cakes, so I made a big cake and me and Dad watched some Jet Li movies; because she loved them, don’t even ask, and we talked about her. The next year we invited over Melissa and my aunt and uncle and did the same thing. It’s- it’s better than sitting around being sad. You can do that on the anniversary of her death and no-one will blame you in the slightest. But on her birthday you should be happy she was alive. That you got to know her.” Stiles paused, a little out of breath.  
“But if you want to be alone, I’ll leave and take all this shit and that’s fine too.”  
Stiles froze, and Derek could hear his heart pounding a mile a minute he was so nervous.  
“No,” he said decisively. “Let’s make a cake.”  
\---  
The cake took much longer than they anticipated, and Derek refused to put the icing on until it was cool, so they ate the lasagne first, while they watched ‘The Breakfast Club’.  
“Laura taught me all the steps to this,” Derek said in an offhand way during the dance scene.  
“No!” Stiles gasped, his eyes shining like Christmas had come early.  
And that was how they ended up in the middle of the lounge room, Stiles’ phone blasting out “We Are Not Alone” from its tinny speaker while Derek shuffled and Stiles flailed and every now and again Derek would say something like “no, no, no, you have to twist your feet _with_ your arms.”  
“Did she bully you into it?” Stiles asked, flopping on the couch and catching the bottle of water Derek threw to him.  
“No,” Derek laughed, taking a swig of his own. “I _begged_ her to teach me. She knew all the steps and she would do it every time it was on and I was so jealous. I was also nine, so I think I have an excuse.”  
“You definitely _do not_ need an excuse,” Stiles laughed.  
\---  
“Laura wouldn’t let anyone else ice her birthday cakes,” Derek said as they heaped cream cheese frosting on top of the finally cool cake.  
“Even the store wasn’t good enough. She was such a perfectionist. But an amazing cook. After the fire she tried to teach me, but I never got much better. On my birthday she’d make me this huge spread of food, everything I liked, which made sense when there was a family of sixteen, but when it was just the two of us-“ he paused and swallowed, “She’d still make the exact same amount of food, and then we’d be eating left overs for a week.” He laughed. “That was probably the point, actually.”  
\---  
“She’d have liked you,” Derek said, smiling and wiping a smudge of icing off Stiles’ nose. “Mothering the pack like you do. She took care of us kids when the pack was out. She never wanted to be alpha, though, it just fell to her as the oldest. She was happiest on her own, reading and cooking. That’s why she never turned anyone else. She wanted to be a librarian. Mom was always talking to her about being a baker or a cook, but she wasn’t interested. Said she cooked for solitude, and what was the point in a commercial kitchen? She liked the quiet, and the smell of books, and yelling at kids. So she was studying to be a librarian. She worried about me, worried I’d never be happy again after Kate, but she never cared if I was actually in a relationship or if I found “peace in myself”, as she’d say. She was asexual, so the number of random one-night stands I brought home worried her, she didn’t get it.”  
Derek stopped, like he was just realizing that was probably the longest thing he’d said in a long time.  
But Stiles just smiled, squeezed Derek’s hand where it was laying in his. “She sounds great.”  
\---  
Later that night, full of cake and pasta, Stiles nestled into Derek’s side, breathing evenly.  
Derek whispers, “I miss her so much.”  
Stiles wraps his arms around Derek’s torso and pulls himself closer.  
“I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my answer to a post on tumblr that was frustrated that Laura Hale is always fan cast as an overbearing control-freak who wants nothing more than to get Derek laid.


End file.
